A's smack Felix around

Could Hernandez be headed to the minor leagues?

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, May 16, 2006

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Mariners came into the season fairly confident that Felix Hernandez wasn't in over his head, pitching in the big leagues at 20.

It would be no surprise if that confidence had been shaken some in the first six weeks of the 2006 season.

Hernandez fell to 2-5 in eight starts Tuesday night when he was knocked around for 11 hits and 10 runs (both career highs) in four innings in Oakland's easy 12-6 victory at McAfee Coliseum.

This is the longest dry spell of Hernandez's professional career, at any level. He was 30-10 in a meteoric minor league career that ended when he was brought up last season for the final two months.

Could it be Hernandez is headed back to the minor leagues? Probably not. Seattle manager Mike Hargrove did not want any part of that subject in the wake of Hernandez's latest effort. Five of the 10 runs off him were unearned thanks to an error by third baseman Adrian Beltre, so clearly not every problem Tuesday was Hernandez's.

"This is not the time to discuss that," Hargrove said. "It's not a question I want to answer."

Well, is the combination of Hernandez and new catcher Kenji Johjima simply not working out? Pitching coach Rafael Chaves said Johjima was not, in his view, part of the problem.

"I'm satisfied that Joh is calling the right pitches," Chaves said. "Felix is throwing the pitches he wants to throw. That's not a problem.

"What is a problem is that he isn't executing the pitches. He's throwing the right pitch at the right time, but it's up in the zone too much of the time."

Hernandez was up in the strike zone most of the night, and the A's feasted on his high heat.

It was, save for his last start against Tampa Bay, a duplicate of many of Hernandez's earlier starts this season. His ERA is 5.19, and he has allowed 54 hits and 18 walks in 43 1/3 innings. Last year, in a dozen starts, Hernandez walked just 23 in 84 1/3 innings, so his control is a pale imitation of what it had been.

"This is the first time I've been through something like this," Hernandez said. "I have to fight it. I just have to stay trying to do it right. It's been a bad year so far."

He's not the only Mariner who can call that statement his own.

Hernandez walked the second batter he faced, Nick Swisher, and that led to an early 1-0 deficit.

The Mariners were facing Joe Blanton, a pitcher who dominated them for eight scoreless innings (with Hernandez the opposing pitcher) on April 7.

It was still 1-0 entering the third when the USS Mariner started to take on water. Singles by Mark Ellis and Mark Kotsay put runners on first and second with two out when Bobby Crosby pushed a grounder toward Beltre.

The usually sure-handed Beltre didn't get his glove down enough, and the ball skipped low and raced through Beltre's legs for an error as Oakland's second run scored. Hargrove said 99 percent of the time, the ball would have bounced higher. Beltre concurred.

"I thought if anything, it was going to come up and hit me in the chest," Beltre said. "And what happened after made it worse."

What happened was that after an infield single loaded the bases, A's backup catcher Adam Melhuse, serving as the DH with Frank Thomas getting the night off, turned on an inside pitch and drove it out to right-center for his third career grand slam.

"Those runs shouldn't have scored," Hargrove said. "He should have been out of the inning, but that's baseball."

Hernandez gave up four more runs, two in the fourth on Swisher's homer (his 13th) and two more in the fifth on three singles, the second one misplayed into a triple by Matt Lawton when the center fielder couldn't cut the ball off before it rolled to the fence.

"Felix threw 80-some pitches, and the majority of them were up in the strike zone," Hargrove said. "No matter how hard you throw, no matter the quality of your stuff, if you throw up in the zone, they'll hit you."

Hernandez said it was "one of those days when you can't control anything," but Chaves has seen this too often to let it go at that.

There has to be an answer, and the pitching coach is dedicated to finding the problem.